Henri Pittier National Park - History

History

Decreed National Park on February 13, 1937 and originally christened with the name of Rancho Grande, under the chairmanship of General Eleazar López Contreras, became the first national park status in the country.

Subsequently, on May 24, 1953 was renamed Henri Pittier, a distinguished Swiss engineer, naturalist and botanist founder of the system of national parks of Venezuela, who managed the consolidation of the park and spent much of his life in the study of forest tropical ecosystem and thousands of species of plants and fauna in the park.

Although it initially was set at 90,000 ha of park, later in 1974 in the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez was appended another 17,800 ha, resulting in a total area of 107,800 ha, current geographic area of the park.

It was created in order to preserve the cloud forest ecosystems and marine-coastal and estuarine environments of the Venezuelan Coastal Range, threatened by burning and agricultural activities, and protect its biodiversity and the preservation of those endemic, rare, vulnerable or endangered species. It also protects important water resources that supply water to nearby towns and is a space for research, recreation and environmental education. Thus the efforts of scientist Henri Pittier for the creation of the Park.

For years the park has been protected by the Instituto Nacional de Parques de Venezuela (INPARQUES), which assumes a systematic policy of conservation and preservation of natural resources of the park.